What’s the size of a toaster and uses three times the energy of an average Pennsylvania household? That would be a cryptocurrency mining machine — a computer that runs 24/7 and spits out numbers in an attempt to solve complex problems, creating proof-of-work cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, as a result. “We have companies that have 80,000
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In the 340 years since Philadelphia’s founding, the city’s landscape has constantly shifted, as waves of development and redevelopment shipped out with the old and in with the new. Unfortunately, on many occasions across the city, transitions went terribly wrong. Consider Logan Triangle, a 35-acre site in North Philadelphia where developers filled in a creek
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On May 11 the EPA proposed carbon emissions standards limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. If adopted, the standards would reduce total carbon dioxide (CO2) by 617 million metric tons — the equivalent of reducing the annual emissions produced by 137 million passenger cars — through 2042. The rule would also reduce particulate emissions
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The 2019 PES oil refinery explosion in South Philadelphia opened the door for a brighter future after more than a century of fossil fuel pollution. But four years later, many questions remain unanswered by new owner Hilco Redevelopment Partners. In September 2019 I plopped into a kayak and pushed off the eastern banks of the
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Lots of nasty stuff comes out of motor vehicle tailpipes. The policy discussion around shifting away from internal combustion engines and towards electric vehicles tends to focus on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but pollution like nitrogen dioxide can make people sick by worsening asthma and other respiratory diseases. A new study has now connected the
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If you’re looking for another reason to electrify your house and quit PGW, fresh research describes how scientists with PSE Healthy Energy examining samples of fossil gas from homes across the state of California found volatile organic compounds, including the carcinogen benzene. A study from this summer found similar mixes of pollutants in gas provided
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There are six trash-burning power plants in eastern Pennsylvania, “and Philly sends trash to all of them,” the Clean Air Council’s Russell Zerbo wrote in Grid. On October 4, a group of 274 environmental organizations signed a letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality asking the advisory group to direct the EPA to
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Imagine walking through Center City and, on every single block, there’s a loud, deafening noise and visible and malodorous emissions emanating from a large box. You call 911 to report it, but, even though they say someone will come check, no one ever shows up. You investigate further and see many online comments about it;
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The Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Air Management Services, the division responsible for monitoring air quality in the city, is holding a hearing on Wednesday, August 10 at 6 p.m. for public input into proposed revisions to its regulations. The regulations, which haven’t been updated since 1981, would expand the list of toxic chemicals monitored
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I’m one of the last to arrive, which means the full spectacle of the protest hits me at once as I come around the bend. A crowd of 150 people holding banners and signs surrounds a massive inflatable of CEO Tim Buckley on the lawn in front of the Malvern headquarters of Vanguard. The likeness
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Air is something we share. But clean air, it turns out, is not equally available to all. Using technology with an almost cartoonish name, the PurpleAir monitor, Christina Rosan thinks making disparities in air quality “in your face” will lead to more equitable, citizen-informed public policies. Advocating for clean air everywhere, she believes, could promote
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